Anand Subramaniam, vice-president of Reliance Capital, the first to depose in the 2G spectrum allocation case trial, said on Friday that various companies of the Reliance ADA Group funded each other for business transactions and these companies funded outside firms also.
Answering a question during his examination-in-chief on cross-funding by the Anil Ambani-owned Group, he said: “It is correct that various companies of the ADA Group keep funding each other for business transactions. It is correct that these companies keep funding outside companies also.”
‘No communication with CBI'
Negating counsel's question whether the CBI coerced him into becoming a witness, Mr. Subramaniam said: “After recording of my statement, there was no communication between me and the CBI. It is wrong to suggest that CBI officials threatened to implicate me in the case [and] that is why, I negotiated and chose to become a witness on their terms.”
He also claimed that he was “not aware whether Anil Ambani was chairman of Swan Telecom or not at any point in time.” He said he had an “understanding” regarding the composition/shareholding pattern of Reliance Communications, but added he did “not have a complete understanding.”
The examination-in-chief of second witness A. N. Sethuraman, group president of Reliance ADA Group, who told the court he had looked after the “relations of the entire ADA Group with the Central government,” was completed only in part.
Mr. Sethuraman was shown an UAS licence application for the Punjab telecom circle by Swan Telecom dated March 2, 2007. On this, he said: “I do not know when it was filed in the DoT, as I did not submit the same. I had just signed the application.”
